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“Mankind’s oldest and strongest emotion is fear, and the oldest and strongest type of fear is fear of the unknown.“(HP LOVECRAFT)
The above summarizes the atmosphere in Ghana before the arrival of the COVAX sponsored AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines. The long-awaited vaccines were greeted on February 24, 2021, amid mixed feelings.
Social media platforms were teeming with excitement, speculation and fear among Ghanaian users.
Concerns about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines persist despite assurances from President Akufo-Addo and campaigns by medical professionals across the country to debunk conspiracy theories surrounding vaccines.
While the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic may be new, conspiracy theories surrounding the virus are not. Indeed, the first months of the pandemic were dominated by speculation about the origins of the virus.
Rumors that eating bats caused the virus have spiked Sinophobic attacks in the United States and several European countries.
The proliferation of disinformation has not abated and over time the enduring myth of the pandemic has grown – the claim that Covid-19 is linked to 5G.
This claim was brought into mainstream discourse via social media by celebrities such as Amir Khan and Woody Harrelson.
It is therefore imperative that efforts to encourage vaccination be well executed.
In West Africa, this conspiracy theory was peddled by the famous preacher, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, who devoted sermons to the spread of the myth.
Existing research has demystified any link between 5G frequencies and the virus and has shown, on the contrary, that 5G can play a decisive role in the fight against the virus.
Nonetheless, a lack of merit has unfortunately not been an obstacle to the spread of these conspiracy theories that have sparked attacks on cell phone towers and telecommunications engineers, especially in the Western world.
The introduction of vaccines late last year sparked more speculation.
There were claims that the vaccine would alter the DNA of recipients or even infect them with the virus itself and a revised version of the 5G theory claimed that the vaccines contained a microchip, sponsored by Bill Gates and linked to cell towers via 5G technologies as a means of population monitoring.
The result of these conspiracy theories is a high rate of vaccine skepticism.
In Wisconsin, for example, a pharmacist deliberately sabotaged 57 vials over the holidays because he believed the vaccine would change people’s DNA.
In Ghana, vaccine skepticism is mainly linked to the belief that the COVAX facility is a trial version and that Ghanaians are going to be used as guinea pigs.
These reservations are not totally unfounded as there is a precedent of illegal trials in the sub-region in the 1996 Kano trovafloxacin trial which caused 5 deaths and several injuries that Pfizer ultimately settled out of court for $ 75 million. in 2009.
Ironically, some Ghanaians are skeptical of AstraZeneca vaccines because they have not been approved in the United States which has switched to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
These concerns have produced a suboptimal vaccination rate with only 0.11 vaccine administered per 100 people since vaccination began on 3rd March.
Much remains to be done to convince citizens to attend vaccination. Thus, the live broadcast of the vaccinations of the president, politicians and some religious figures is a welcome step.
These efforts could be further enhanced by a concerted effort by the government, through the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), to tackle misinformation about vaccines through new and traditional media, thereby ensuring correct information on side effects and other relevant information about the vaccine. permeate all spheres of Ghanaian society.
In addition, influencers who took the first dose of the vaccine should be encouraged to share their experience after taking the vaccine through videos and voice memos on social media platforms, thereby retrieving a means by which misinformation on vaccines is prevalent.
Additionally, major social media platforms should be persuaded to quickly remove accounts that amplify fake news from their sites to check for the spread of disinformation.
The government can explore legislation that fines influencers who create false news about the vaccine or amplify existing conspiracy theories.
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The author, Rockson Obeng is a student at Simon Fraser University, Canada
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